Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State
Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State
Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State
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Hughes: That’s a wonderful name. It has a Miss Marple-ish flavor to it. I’m really<br />
impressed by your mother, and what she did in her time.<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: She was amazing.<br />
Hughes: Do you have any <strong>of</strong> her Chadwick Holland mysteries?<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: Yes, I have a stack <strong>of</strong> them.<br />
Hughes: Did she make any money writing them?<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: Like $50 a story. What was more interesting about my mother was she was<br />
entering (writing) contests. Nowadays the contests are just ridiculous, in my opinion,<br />
because there’s so many <strong>of</strong> them. In those days you had to have a little talent; you had<br />
to write a poem or do this or that. She won a set <strong>of</strong> Danish Princess Silverplate and gift<br />
certificates. And she was on a talk show one time and they wanted to know the date <strong>of</strong><br />
Flag Day, and she knew it right <strong>of</strong>f. She knew everything – a steel trap.<br />
Hughes: I like everything about your mom that I see here in this family picture when you<br />
joined the Supreme Court in 1981: The way she’s holding her purse. The look in her eyes,<br />
like she’s saying, “This is my daughter, and this is what I expected. <strong>Carolyn</strong> was too social,<br />
but I knew she’d amount to something, and here she is.” And your dad is wearing a vest,<br />
and he looks like a proud Dane.<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: That’s it. Any good reason to dress right up… An old sod.<br />
Hughes: So what was life like in the Reaber home growing up?<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: Dad’s gone quite a bit; mother’s writing stories. She didn’t like housework. She<br />
didn’t like cooking.<br />
Hughes: So who cooked?<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: Well, she did. I mean it was very plain food, no sauces and all that kind <strong>of</strong> stuff.<br />
Like my daughter now is really into cooking.<br />
Hughes: That’s another thing that’s different today: Everyone’s a “gourmet.”<br />
<strong>Dimmick</strong>: But it was fine. I went to work at the Seattle P-I and worked there all through<br />
school. The war came along. My brother had been working at the P-I in the Circulation<br />
Department and he got a job in the mail room because everybody was going <strong>of</strong>f to war. So<br />
I took his job in the Circulation Department, from 4 to 9. I was the first person who did a<br />
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